Because day care have arranged for a psychologist to observe the Toddler today. Day care tell me they think she has severe separation anxiety and anger management problems. They tell me that the Toddler might benefit from play therapy.
WTF!?
I want to tell them they're all a bunch of freaks and that my child will not be returning to their care.
This all came about because, apparently, the Toddler is getting frustrated with her peers. Gee, I can't imagine why. I would totally be cool, calm and collected if I tried to speak to someone and, rather than use words like I do, they babbled some indecipherable rubbish at me before snatching a toy or pushing me.
Chances are I'd push them back, too.
The separation anxiety thing, I know, is related to the patch we went through where she wasn't keen for us to leave her. But to be honest we've made such a massive transition in the last 3 weeks, it's like it never even happened!
The other thing that concerns us is that it appears only one carer has issues with the Toddler. And by that I mean, when this carer tells the Toddler it's not okay to push her friends etc, the Toddler apparently throws herself to the floor and has a tantrum.
This only happens with this one specific carer.
My question is, what is this carer doing differently from the others, that invokes this reaction from the Toddler? And excuse me, but I don't think it has anything to do with separation anxiety or anger management issues.
We have a susupicion that she's bored and needs stimulation and interaction on a new level. Hell, she just needs to be in a group of children who will speak to her, rather than dribble, grunt and snot in her face.
We're her parents, and so we're quite obviously biased. I'm not saying we've created a genius (in fact, some days I think we've created a monster), but she is further developed with her speech, language and communication than a lot of her peers. Probably because she's part of a family who speak almost non-stop from the moment they wake up until they go to sleep at night. And even then we don't stop - we all talk in our sleep.
Every child is different and every child develops at their own pace. What annoys me is that they say the Toddler's physically too small to move up a level, to the pre-school room. They admit she's got the mental capacity, but are holding her back because of her physical appearance.
The Toddler has always been small for her age, but it's not stopped her! Besides, the Toddler has a friend in day care, N, who is half the size and the same age - N's sister, who is 18months old, is twice her size. What are they going to do to poor little N?
'I'm sorry, N, we've decided you need to stay in the toddler room until you're 15 because you're small.'
Idiots.
I think it makes us even more annoyed because some of her friends who are the same age but just happen to be taller or bigger in general, are having half-day transition into pre-school.
I'm extremely grateful that day care decided to become ridiculous during the Guru's time off because he is there today, monitoring all the goings on, and will be having a meeting with the centre staff and the counsellor about it all once they have completed their 'observations'.
I can't wait to hear what they have to say, although I can't promise I'll be receptive.
